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Exchanges Round-Up: CME Rejects Altcoins, Waves DEX Hacked on Launch

In recent news pertaining to cryptocurrency exchanges, the CEO of Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has indicated that the company has no intentions of introducing derivative markets for alternative cryptocurrencies in the near futures; Waves’ decentralized exchange was hacked upon launch; and the founder Pakcoin has attributed Pakistan’s slow rate of cryptocurrency adoption to low literacy rates.

CME CEO Extinguishes Rumors of Altcoin Futures

The chief executive officer of CME, Terrence Duffy, has indicated that the company has no plans to introduce derivatives markets for additional cryptocurrencies.

Mr. Duffy stated that he “will take a wait and see approach with [BTC] for now, adding “I will not just put products up there to see where they’re going to go.” Mr. Duffy also emphasized that cryptocurrency futures contracts are “highly volatile and new.”

In an interview in March, Dennis O’Callahan, the director for product development of Chicago Board Options Exchange, responded to a question concerning whether CBOE was exploring listing derivative markets for other cryptocurrencies, stating: “Being in product development our task is to look for new products all the time, so we are constantly evaluating that market, and we are evaluating other cryptocurrencies too, among other items. But we have seen how Bitcoin has worked, so we are definitely monitoring other termarkets to make sure that the infrastructure and everything is in place in case we want to pursue other cryptocurrencies.”

Waves’ DEX Gets Hacked Upon Launch

Earlier this week, Waves officially launched its decentralized exchange following a year-and-a-half-long beta period. The Waves DEX reportedly facilitated $6 million worth of cryptocurrency transactions at the conclusion of its beta testing, surpassing the daily volume of many rival decentralized exchanges. The company claimed to be host to 330,000 wallets belonging to 90,000 traders.

Despite the company’s confidence heading into the launch, Waves’ exchange and main company websites were seized by hackers seeking to phish for users’ information pertaining to wallets. After several hours, Waves was able to restore access to its DNS server and return its platforms online.

The chief executive officer of Waves, Sasha Ivanov, discussed the incident with media, stating: “Someone just faked my passport and gave it to support [staff] at the domain company and they changed the password at his request. Then the attacker was able to change the main website.”

In response to the attack, Mr. Ivanov stated: “We and the whole industry need to work on decentralized domain name systems.” A spokeswoman for Waves added that “the DNS servers of the Waves website are maintained by the registrar, and in this case, their security is beyond our control. Nevertheless, the security levels of the registrar are, indeed, in question, and so we are currently considering further action … to make sure that this one-time breach will never occur again.”

Abu Shaheer, the founder of Pakistan-based altcoin Pakcoin, has indicated that the number of Pakistanis investing in cryptocurrencies is increasing slowly, attributing the slow speed of uptake the low rates of literacy in Pakistan.

“People are turning to cryptocurrency as an investment, but slower than the western world as the literacy rate is lower here and its a totally new phenomenon for them,” Mr. Shaheer said. “Some are using it as alternative means of payments. Most people using cryptocurrencies are day or short-term traders finding investment opportunities in crypto and are growing in number.”

When do you think we will see mainstream financial institutions offer derivative products for a wide range of cryptocurrencies? Join the discussion in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Wikipedia

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